FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON!!

Yep! Woke up to this!

(Can I park in the garage now, hun?)

Finally Up and Running!

We were having a little wireless/router issues since Saturday! Had the Charter boys here and they gave us more speed and locked our wireless. (Now I'm not friendly any more!) So, now I can share what we did this past weekend!

Friday night, (Halloween of course!)we decided to go out in Spicer with friends!

Costumes required!!

This is how Tim greeted our Trick or Treater's while I was getting ready!

Note he already has his Frank bolts on his neck!

While Tim was getting ready I greeted the Trick or Treater's

as Francine! Frank's bride! A little pirate(Savanna) stopped by

with her Grandma Joy!

After greeting about 140 Trick or Treater's, (yes, 140!!, our

neighborhood always gets a ton of the little ghosts and

goblin's!! And some aren't so little!!), Tim and I headed to Spicer,

as Frank and Francine for our own Halloween fun! Here are four of my beautiful friends!!

Sweet Angel Brooke, Sassy Mermaid Susan, Sexy Snow White Angela and Diva Bat Eryn!
Grant and Cari!
Best lookin' pirates I have ever seen!
Here we are hangin' with our Ghostly friends and Waylon and Willie!
It was a fun night! Lots of interesting costumes(and people)!!

Saturday was a day to get jobs done at home. Seems we are always on the go and to
have a day at home is very needed. Oh, I guess we did get out again Saturday evening!

Tim and I went to the movie, Saw Five!!! We have seen all of the 'Saw' movies and when

I saw that Saw Five was here I just had to see it! It was just as intriguing as the first four!

AND by how the movie ended, there will be a Saw Six!! I'll be watching next year!!

Then on Sunday Tim and I headed down to my dad's farm to help

get things ready for winter. My sister Julie and her family came too!

Before we got too busy I wanted to get

a picture of dad with his new buddies!! Waldo and Rusty.

We laughed when dad said he named the older cat Waldo!! Didn't seem

like a name my dad would choose. He said he had watched a TV show

and an older character who he got a kick out of was named Waldo.

One job was for the guys to get dads restored John Deere started.

No key on this old thing, you spin something on the side!!!?

And to hook up the snow- blower (that dad built in 1969 when

we had a blizzard that lasted 3-4 days and snow was to the top

of the Quonset.) Still works good!

We also had to stack wood. My nephew Ken moved the wagon with

all the wood closer so we could stack it behind my dads shop.

Here my sister Julie and her son John stack a few more logs!

It was such a gorgeous day!! John took a few minutes(after the

work was done) to practice his aim!

Ken loves everything with motors. He had his own 4-wheeler along

but took time to ride Grandpa's 3-wheeler!

After the gutters were cleaned, leaves raked, sticks picked up,

lawn mowed, ashes hauled out,wood stacked, tractors moved,

old pick-up run down to the neighbor to get some tin, (and then

let Ken drive a couple miles to get the fluids moving in the old thing) and a

hair cut for Ken, it was time to grill out and relax.

I love days on the farm with family like this.

I found this quote on Heidi Swapp's blog.

I reminds me of my family. In a very good way.

I can think of many ways my parents and grandparents

reused things or recycled them. It seemed nothing went to waste.

And I saw this week how this motto has even passed down to my daughter, Megan.

She wanted to make Halloween costumes for a girl friend and herself.

She asked if I had royal blue fabric(which I didn't) so she used an old set of royal blue

of flannel sheets. She also used an old pattern I had to make two bib overhalls.

Going Green is another way to get through these hard economic times.

And it's a good feeling to 'do it yourself'!!

MONKEY SOCKS!

Sorry, but Ian is getting up-staged by my socks!

I finished these on our trip to Oklahoma! Really

like the yarn, sisu by SandnesGarn. A Eruopean

yarn I bought at the Purple Iris in Marshall, MN.

You can find the pattern here!

Happy Birthday, Ian!!

I didn't want to forget to mention that we celebrated Ian's 26th birthday while we were in Oklahoma!

Thursday evening we gathered at our hotel for a little birthday party for him.

Food, cake and gifts for this (fantastic, amazing, special) young man.

HAVE A GREAT YEAR, IAN!!

(Ian opening the felted slippers I made for him.)

FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!

CONGRATULATIONS, IAN!

MORE FROM OKLAHOMA!!

A little dark but this is all of us that came to celebrate with Ian!

Below is Marcie, Claire and Tim getting a feel for what the pilots feel when going high speeds!

And I have to mention the gas prices!

We put on a total of almost 1500 miles! When we got

to Enid this was the lowest price we saw on the way down. Then by the time we left on Saturday morning the

last fill we got was $2.07. Hope we see those prices around here soon??!!!





I just had to share a few more pictures.

I ended up with over 400

but narrowed them down to 342.

Tim and I are still in awe!!!!

An Evening of Honor!!

Friday evening truly was an evening of honor.

Not only did we honor Ian for all he has accomplished

but we also honored family, friends, traditions and our country!

Ian is a true man of honor.

We could see how his fellow servicemen respect him

and what a great leader and friend he is to them.

Four generations of McLaughlin's! Gma and Gpa Mac,

their son Denny, Denny's children Ian and Claire

and Claire's son Jacob. (It appeared that we

had the oldest and youngest family members at the celebration.)

Vance AFB is only about 4 miles outside of Enid.

Claire and Ian!
A tradition in the Air Force is to break
a pair of 'wings' and to give one half to someone.
Ian gave half of his wings to his sister Claire during
the banquet Friday evening. It was a touching moment
for all of us to share with them. Claire spent four years
in the Air Force as a nurse.







A music/slide video was shown of the 19 members of Ian's class.
And this led into the awards.....

...of which Ian won 3 or 4!!

He received one that is one of the oldest

awards in the Air Force. (Can't remember the name of it.)

Ian(370) and his fellow award winners!!

Lila!!! The bartender at the Officers Club!

She says she has the best job in the world!

Lila help the guys figure out what needed to

be mixed with Jag to have the honor of being

named "370"!!!!

CHEERS!!!

TO IAN AND CLASS 09-01!!!!

BOTTOMS UP!!!!!

And I still need to find out where Ian got the idea to

take his white formal military issue shirt and have

airplane fabric replace the sleeves and back!!

What FUN!! He actually got the fabric at WalMart!!

We helped Ian and his friends celebrate (late into the evening.)

Tim, me, Ian's mother Marcie, and his uncle Gary.

Saturday morning 'goodbye's'!!

Tim's parents and us took off for home about 10:30

for our 12 hour trip home.

This trip to Oklahoma is one I will never forget.

Congratulations, Ian!!

When's the next party?!!!!